Posted
by
CmdrTacoon Monday August 13, 2007 @12:53PM
from the now-in-frat-boys-basement dept.

morpheus83 writes "Russian news agency Interfax is reporting that thieves have stolen a three-ton meteorite from the yard of the Tunguska Space Event foundation, whose director said it was the part of meteor that caused a massive explosion in Siberia in 1908. The massive three tonne rock was bought to Krasnoyarsk after an 2004 expedition to the site of the so-called Tunguska event- a mysterious mid air explosion over Siberia in 1908 was 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The foundation's director Yury Lavbin claimed to have discovered the wreckage of an alien spacecraft during the expedition."

My current understanding of the Tunguska event was that there were still at least three really good potential theories and that they were still researching. Asteroid, meteorite, etc.

Anyway, glad to see the Aliens got their rock back. No tin-foil-hat-wearing clown should own Alien property. If my car parks on an ant hill, the ants suddenly don't own my car. And this guy had no right to "own" that rock. This guy has got to get a clue regarding species relations.

The US military used their stealth helicopter technology (enhanced with alien technology) to airlift the meteor out in the middle of the night. Otherwise, someone would have eventually discovered the alien artifacts embedded deep within the meteor.

Obviously, Yury didn't bring the alien ship back because he himself is possessed, and the alien-Yury decided it would be much smarter to bring the meteorite back and tell a few oligarchs that it was filled with oil! Yes! So they go and steal it for their own ends, but they'll all get possessed, and the black ooze will be walking in the corridors of Russian power. And all this when there is talk of a new Cold War developing with the West.

I dunno, I remember a Cajun restaurant around the corner had a really cool giant wood alligator sculpture crawling out of the side of the building.

About 15 ft up, It was about 7 to 8ft long and weighed probably near 1000 pounds with the mount. Steel cables attaching it to the building amongst other things.

One Sunday, a few guys showed up with a cherry picker and somehow detached, lowered it and carted it off. More than a few people saw it, but people just assumed they must be ok to cart it off, because who would steal a giant wooden alligator in the middle of the day?

How does a 3-ton rock go missing?You have to understand Russian culture.

The expedition was under pressure from the government to produce its quota of evidence.When they could only find a few kilograms of meteor material, they forged a report stating that they had a 3-ton meteor (step 1). Then they bribed the right inspectors to confirm the existance of said meteor (step 2). Later, they realized that they could purchase property theft insurance from U.S. insurance companies (step 3). They then reported the meteor missing and filed a claim with Travelers (step 4).

Look, I know he's Slashdot's favorite whipping boy, but would it be possible to leave Ballmer out of just one discussion!?

Nope. Not Ballmer. My money's on Karl Rove. This rock of kryptonite dissappears and he resigns? Well, isn't that con-VEEEEEEEEEEEn-ient? His reason of "spending more time with my family" rings completely hollow, as one has to have a soul to enjoy family, and according to Wikipedia, Rove sold his in a deal to get a SECOND term for GWB. More likely, he's going to be using it in a plot to taint consumer products to cause tree huggers, gays, strict constitutionalists, and other riff raff to keel over. My spidey senses tell me so.

It's possible. Heck, in 1968, a master thief and his girlfriend/accomplice stole a 10-ton gold ingot from a moving train! They blew up a bridge going over water when the train approached. The train crashed into the bay, along with the steel container of gold. Using a submarine, they went down and attached balloons to the container to give it lift, and hauled away the gold using the sub. Luckily, the police inspector in charge of moving the gold had the container radioactivated, so they could trace it with a geigercounter. The police swarmed the thief's hideout while he was in the process of melting the ingot with a giant laser.

According to this [spacedaily.com] article, the meteorite went missing last June, but they only reported it now. HELLO? It's still on Lavbin's desk, right where he left it, but his desk is actually MORE MESSY than mine.

In my university they installed this huge frozen CO2 tank the size of two large trailer trucks. The next day it was gone. The funny thing is that people have seen it in an industrial area, but there's no formal proof that it's the same, so it's there to stay.

I did. Nothing yet. Chopped up into little ebay sized pieces, that would be a lot of lots of Tunguska meteorite. Perhaps they're hacking it up even now. Though the question would be how would one know it was authentic? I guess it would be one of those things where they provide a 'certificate of authenticity' to guarantee it...

Or - 4. A viral marketing campaign for the soon-to-be-announced "Super Mario Brothers: Meteorite Mania!" game. Unfortunately, Adam and Morgan will only give it 2 1/2 stars, and it will disappear into well-deserved obscurity soon after.